I've been covering the video game space for 20 years for outlets like The Washington Post, Reuters, CNET, AOL, Wired Magazine, Yahoo!, Entertainment Weekly, NBC, Variety, Maxim, EGM, and ESPN. I serve as EIC of GamerHub.tv and co-founder of GamerHub Content Network, a video game and technology video syndication network that works with Tribune and DBG to syndicate game videos and editorial around the world. I also cover games for outlets like The Hollywood Reporter, IGN, Geek Monthly, CNN, DigitalTrends and PrimaGames.

With a new year of eSports upon us, Blizzard Entertainment (a division of Activision Blizzard Publishing) has big plans for its StarCraft II franchise. The new Heart of the Swarm expansion, which launches in March, will add new elements for pro gamers and pro gaming fans. Dustin Browder, game director for StarCraft II at Blizzard, talks about what’s in store with the new game content and explains why pro gamers are real athletes in this exclusive interview.

How closely does Blizzard watch the eSports phenomena around StarCraft II?

Incredibly closely; this is something we all love, are very passionate about, and we’re super excited to see the community create. When we started out working on StarCraft II, we had this hope that maybe we would have some events for StarCraft II someday that had 50 or 60 people at it. Wouldn’t that be amazing? That’s what we thought was going to happen, now here we are events like MLG and BWC with thousands and thousands of people gathered around to watch people playing StarCraft II on a stage for thousands and thousands of dollars. It’s absolutely incredible.

What do you think it is about this game that has struck such a chord with a global audience from the eSports perspective?

We’re building on the original StarCraft, which had a lot of the values that made it really work as an eSport. It was easy to learn, relatively speaking, but very difficult, even impossible, to master. That’s very important for a sport.

The other thing is, we try to make it very clear and crisp in terms of the graphics. We could do things with this game that would make it look a lot prettier in screenshots, but wouldn’t make it work nearly as well for a sport. We try to make sure all the units are clear, and that it’s obvious what’s going on. We focus, very much, on making it as watchable as possible.

We also add a lot of features, like replay systems and this kind of stuff, that really allow as casters to practice their art of being a shoutcaster, of learning how to cast a match so you can understand what’s happening in a match.

All these things, I think, come together with an amazingly passionate and exciting community to create something that works very, very well as an eSport.

From an outsider’s perspective, for someone who doesn’t understand what’s going on here, is chess maybe a good analogy?

It’s very much like real-time chess, but with monsters, aliens, and ray guns. These guys are outthinking each other; they’re trying to get in each heads, and trying to understand what the other guy’s strategy is so they can be one step ahead of them. It’s very much like a chess game. The other big difference, of course, is it is real time; it’s something happening live. All these moves are happening simultaneously, so it’s not just your ability to think, it’s your ability to think quickly that makes all the difference in the world.

Some of these guys are doing amazing things. They’re doing 300 to 400 actions per minute. They’re clicking on these mice and keyboards at a ferocious rate. Even if you or I could click that fast, these guys are such experts at the game and so quick at the psychology, they’re literally almost not even playing the game; they’re playing the other guy.

They’re trying to outsmart him, outfox him, and trick him. That’s what makes this such a joy to watch as you are watching from a distance. You can see what both players are doing. You have someone to explain to you what both players are thinking, the shoutcaster, which is like a sports commentator. They explain what they’re thinking and doing, and you get to see the drama unfold.

Will he see the danger that’s about to be sprung? Will he see that surprise attack that’s about to happen? Will he see that surprise attack that’s about to happen? Will he outthink the opponent in this scenario? Nobody has outthought anybody; who can out maneuver who right here on the battlefield?

It’s super exciting stuff. It’s just human drama on a big stage, but instead of guys with soccer balls, it’s aliens, marines, ray guns, and space ships. For a geek like me, it’s just an absolute joy.

What are your thoughts about this whole concept of the cyber athlete? People are very familiar with soccer players. What makes pro gamers cyber athletes?

These guys are athletes. There’s physical and mental conditioning to it. These guys are, in many cases, playing 12 hours a day to prepare for these matches, or even just constantly. These guys are training as hard as a regular athlete would to train for these things. They have to have the dedication and enthusiasm for it, and there’s a lot of coaching that goes on as well. A lot of these guys have coaches and are parts of teams. They create a culture of support around them so they can learn to master the game. What good are you if you can’t practice against somebody who’s great? So these guys create teams of people where they’re all really good, they practice against each other constantly, and they compete against other teams.

This allows them to create this sport atmosphere where they work as hard as any regular athlete, and try as hard. They have to have the psychology and mental endurance. You see these guys when they lose a match; they are crushed, just like an Olympic hopeful would be crushed if he didn’t make it. They’ve got to have the endurance to overcome that and say, “Yeah, I lost the biggest match of my career, but I’m not done. I’m going to come back and overcome this,” and sometimes they do. It’s just absolutely amazing the trials, tribulations, and challenges these guys face every day.

What role has the explosion of live streaming played in the growth of eSports over the last few years?

Streaming has been huge for us. For a long time, you really couldn’t have eSport unless you’re on television, and only in Korea was that possible for StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War. So eSport was huge in Korea during that era of our games, and it was fantastic. Then we spread here to the United States, so there wasn’t that strong an eSports scene here, but now with streaming, we don’t need TV. We can be watching this game around the world and have 180 countries watching MLG today.

There are thousands, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people watching this stuff because of streaming; it’s absolutely amazing. It also allows us to have much smaller events as well, and it’s very easy to stream your content out, when previously you would need a major broadcaster to do it. Internet has given us this lever to get video out to people to create this amazing experience. I think it’s absolutely instrumental to everything that’s happening here today.

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